Maharashtra: Lonar lake colour changes to pink; experts, locals surprised
Aurangabad: The colour of water in Maharashtra's Lonar lake, formed after a meteorite hit the Earth some 50,000 years ago, has changed to pink with experts attributing it to the salinity and presence of algae in the water body.
Located around 500 km from Mumbai, the Lonar lake in Buldhana district is a popular tourist hub and also attracts scientists from all over the world.
Of late, the change in colour of water of the lake, having a mean diameter of 1.2 km, has not only surprised locals, but also nature enthusiasts and scientists.
Experts say this is not the first time that the colour change has happened, but this time it is more glaring.
The lake, which is a notified national geo-heritage monument, has saline water with pH of 10.5, Gajanan Kharat, member of the Lonar lake conservation and development committee, told PTI.
"There are algae in the water body. The salinity and algae can be responsible for this change," he said.
"There is no oxygen below one meter of the lake's water surface. There is an example of a lake in Iran, where water becomes reddish due to increase in salinity," he noted.
Kharat said the level of water in the Lonar lake is currently low as compared to the few past years and there is no rain to pour fresh water in it.
"The low level of water may lead to increased salinity and change in the behaviour of algae because of atmospheric changes...this may be the reason for colour change. This is not the first time that the colour of water has changed," he said.
Dr Madan Suryavanshi, head of the geography department of Aurangabad's Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, said looking at the scale of this colour change, "this cant be a human intervention".
"In case of a natural phenomenon, there are fungi which generally give a greenish colour to water most of the times. This (the current colour change) seems to be a biological change in the Lonar crater," he said.
During the lockdown phase, there may not have been any disturbance to water which led to this change, he said.
"Season-wise changes occur in water and this might be case with the Lonar lake. We can examine the change if we go there in a week...then we can say more about the change," he said.
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Civic polls: 68 Mahayuti candidates elected unopposed, including 44 of BJP
Mumbai (PTI): The BJP and its Mahayuti allies have won 68 seats unopposed in the Maharashtra civic polls scheduled for January 15, even as the Opposition parties alleged the ruling combine used threats and money to force candidates to withdraw from the fray.
Across the state, as many as 68 candidates from the BJP and the Mahayuti have been elected unopposed, reflecting the party's growing strength in urban local bodies, BJP leader Keshav Upadhye said on Friday.
This includes 44 from the BJP, with the highest number being from Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation in Thane district, followed by Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Panvel, Bhiwandi, Dhule, Jalgaon and Ahilyanagar.
BJP candidates Manjusha Nagpure and Shrikant Jagtap from Pune's ward number 35 were elected unopposed after their opponents withdrew their nomination forms. The two were elected from the ward between 2017 and 2022.
Hailing the wins, Union minister and senior BJP leader Murlidhar Mohol said the next mayor of Pune will be from his party.
"We have a target of 125 seats, out of which we have already won two, so 123 are remaining. Two seats were won unopposed. This is a certificate for our party's good governance," Mohol claimed.
The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has seen 22 of its candidates getting elected unopposed, while the figure was two for Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party.
BJP leaders attributed the trend to the popularity of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and what they described as the successful electoral strategy of state unit president Ravindra Chavan.
These have helped the BJP emerge as a dominant force not only in municipal councils but also in major municipal corporations, the leaders added.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, meanwhile, accused the ruling dispensation of using money and threats to get opposition candidates to withdraw from the fray.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, in a post on X, claimed that returning officers had been directed to accept the withdrawal of nomination from candidates till late in the night.
These withdrawals of nomination were to be considered as if they had been presented before the 3 pm deadline on Friday, he claimed.
"A friend of mine, who is in this election process, said this (accepting the form beyond 3 pm) would not be appropriate. He was told by the guardian minister, in a tone that sounded both a request and as a threat, that he should listen to what the local MLA says," Raut claimed.
This is mobocracy in the name of democracy. One day, there will be a public uprising like in Bangladesh and Nepal, he further claimed.
The Shiv Sena on Friday claimed five of its candidates have been elected unopposed to the 131-member Thane Municipal Corporation.
Six BJP candidates have been elected unopposed after the scrutiny of nomination papers for the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC) polls in Maharashtra's Thane district, the party claimed.
Three Shiv Sena candidates and one BJP contestant were declared unopposed following the scrutiny of nomination papers for the Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation polls in Thane district, an official said on Thursday.
"Why do you hold polls if you want to win them before voting. Both the ruling parties should distribute it amongst themselves. Democracy has ended in India and the state. They chose weak candidates of the opposition and got their work done," MNS leader Avinash Jadhav said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant also accused the ruling parties of putting pressure on Opposition candidates to ensure such unopposed victories.
